French•healthy

Chocolate Meringue Cookies

A yummy, light, gluten-free and dairy-free chocolate dessert.

Ingredients

Quantities are shown as originally provided.

3 Large Egg Whites
¾ Cup Granulated Sugar
⅓ Cup Finely Chopped Dark Chocolate (I like the 72% Fair Trade Belgian Chocolate from Trader Joe's, it's dairy-free!)
¼ Cup Cocoa Powder (Use whichever kind you have.)
1 ½ Tsp Lemon Juice (Cream of Tarter works too, however use 1/4 tsp.)
1/4 Tsp Vanilla Extract

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1. Make sure large bowl is clean and dry. Add egg whites, vanilla extract, and lemon juice to bowl. Whip on high speed until the egg whites form stiff peaks.
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2. Add sugar to medium bowl. Gently scatter 1 teaspoon of sugar into the egg whites and b mix on medium speed for 10 seconds. Repeat with remaining sugar.
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3. Add cocoa powder to the second medium bowl. Pour cocao powder into sifter and sift no more than 1/4 into the egg whites. Mix on low/medium speed until combined. Repeat with remaining cocao powder. Do this gradually, if the cocoa powder is added too quickly, it's weight will cause the egg whites to fall. If the egg whites fall you will need to start over with fresh ingredients.
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4. Carefully fold in chopped chocolate to the egg whites. Add to piping bag (wait until step 6 to cut off the end of the bag).
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5. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. If the parchment paper doesn't stick, add some water or cooking spray to the pan and press the parchment paper on top. This is make piping the meringues easier.
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6. Cut the end off of your piping bag, about 1 centimeter's worth. Hold piping bag with dominant hand and secure the top with non dominant hand to prevent meringue from leaking out the top. Gentely squeeze piping bag, forcing the meringue downwards, touch the parchment paper and move in a circle, ending upwards at the circle's center. Repeat with remaining merignue.
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7. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes.
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Serve and enjoy :)